Black Memories
by Gage39
Summary: Walker and Gage get kidnapped. 'Showdown At Casa Diablo' only the guys, not the girls. Walker finds out why Gage decided to join the Rangers.


Title: Black Memories

Author: Gage39

Summary: Gage and Walker are kidnapped and Walker learns several surprising, painful things about Gage including why Gage joined the Rangers. Kind-of like 'Showdown At Casa Diablo' only it's about the guys not the girls.

Ranger Headquarters

It was a clear day when Walker exited the Ranger Headquarters building and headed toward his truck. For once his Cherokee instincts failed him and as he opened the door he didn't hear the footsteps behind him until after the tire iron had hit the back of his head and he slumped to the ground, unconscious.

20 minutes earlier

Gage's Apartment Building

Gage juggled his keys in one hand as he went up the two flights of stairs that led to his apartment. He smiled politely at a young woman who was coming down and seemed to be very interested in him. He wasn't interested in her however and just continued on his way. He stuck the key in the lock and was just about to push the door open when something heavy struck him on the back of his head and he fell to the floor.

Ranger Headquarters

Trivette hummed to himself as he left the building but the noise died away when he saw Walker's truck sitting in the parking lot.

"That's strange," he muttered. "I thought Walker had already left." His suspicions grew when he saw the door was open. Carefully Trivette looked around and saw Walker's keys lying on the concrete. Immediately he pulled out his cell phone and started dialing.

Walker woke up to a slight swaying motion. He tried to open his eyes but discovered he was blindfolded. He could hear voices but he couldn't make out what they were saying. Suddenly he felt himself rolling and he realized he was in a van and they had just turned a corner sharply. He hit something hard and decided there was someone else with him who was also tied up as he could feel ropes tied to whoever he had rolled into.

Suddenly the van screeched to a halt and Walker grunted as he was thrown back onto the other person. The doors were flung open and Walker could feel hands grabbing him and he was dragged across the ground and into some sort of building. He could hear somebody grunt in exertion as they tried to move Walker's companion.

"I'm untying your feet but you better not try anything," a voice with a Mexican accent warned in Walker's ear.

Walker nodded his head and felt the ropes around his feet drop to the ground. Someone shoved him in the back and Walker stumbled forward.

"Why isn't this guy moving?" the man who had untied Walker complained.

"I think you hit him too hard. He's still unconscious," another voice answered.

The first man grumbled under his breath then Walker found himself going down a flight of stairs. It was interesting going down who knew how many stairs with a blindfold on and his hands tied behind his back and Walker felt immensely sorry for the unconscious guy who was getting dragged down the stairs.

Walker found himself shoved into a brick wall and his hands were untied. Before he could take advantage of his new found freedom a pair of handcuffs were slapped around his wrists and someone turned him around and Walker's hands were lifted above his head and he heard the sound of the handcuffs being attached to something. Next his blindfold was torn off but Walker couldn't see a thing. The sounds around him indicated that the other person was being handcuffed as well.

"The boss isn't going to be happy if that guy dies," the first man said.

"He's not going to die," the second man sounded annoyed. "You know how heard it is to kill Texas Rangers?"

Walker stiffened. Texas Ranger. That meant it was Trivette, Sydney or Gage who was with him. Since Sydney wasn't a he and Gage had already gone home so…

"You know what the boss said. He didn't care what happened to Ranger Walker but he wanted Ranger Gage left alive," the first voice said.

Walker almost groaned. Gage was with him and was also unconscious? This was not good. Not good at all. He heard the footsteps of the kidnappers going up the stairs and for just an instant light shone into the room long enough for Walker to see that he was in a large concrete room and he could see blood on the floor leading to a dark corner which was presumably where they had taken Gage.

"Gage?" he whispered but received no response so he tried it a little bit louder. "Gage?"

The only response was a slight rustling from the corner and Walker's eyes had adjusted enough to see a rat go running across the floor. He closed his eyes but when he opened them again the rat was sitting in front of him.

"Go away," he told it. "Get."

"Who are you talking to?" Gage's voice cut through the darkness.

"A rat," Walker told him.

"A rat?" Walker could hear the terror in Gage's voice.

"It's just a rat, Gage."

"Just a rat? That's like saying it's just a little dark in here!"

"Gage, this may be a wild guess on my part but are you scared of the dark?"

"Maybe just a little," Gage said and Walker groaned. "I'm sorry okay, Walker? I didn't ask to be scared of the dark and I also didn't ask to be handcuffed to some sort of pole!"

"Gage, I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry for yelling but my head hurts."

"I'm not surprised. You were still out of it when they handcuffed you."

"I'm not going to be surprised if I have a concussion," Gage said with a sigh.

An hour had passed before Walker decided to risk his life and said, "Gage?"

"What?"

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" Walker asked hesitantly.

"What is it?" Gage asked warily.

"Why did you decide to join the Rangers?"

Gage sighed and said, "When I was eight my parents were killed in a car accident. Julie and I ended up in foster care. The first home wasn't that bad. We didn't get hit that much. Just when we annoyed our foster father. Which was a lot come to think of it. We left that home two years later and got moved around a lot."

"Did you end up with any other abusive homes?" Walker asked.

"One more. I would have been fourteen when we moved there. Our foster father, Eric, liked pretty girls and Julie," Walker heard Gage stop and swallow; "Julie was pretty."

"Did he rape her?" Walker asked gently.

"All the time. I'd try to stop him which only got me hit. We lived there a little over a year before we got removed."

"Did you tell anybody what was going on?"

"Not at first. The neighbors kept complaining about the noise so the police kept coming out and they would ask us questions but we never answered them. We were too afraid Eric would kill us or worse. There was this one police officer, his name was Carlos, and he patrolled the school and I liked him. Eric didn't feed us and Carlos would always give me half of his lunch.

"Anyway, one night Eric was fixing to rape Julie again and I couldn't just stand by so I called the police and they said they were on their way. I couldn't let him hurt Julie though without trying to protect her so I got between the two of them and he shoved me into the wall and I ended up with a fractured skull and a broken arm. By the time the police arrived Eric had raped Julie and I was unconscious.

"I scared Julie half to death since I was in a coma for three weeks. Nobody thought I would make it but I surprised them. I've always surprised people," Gage sighed again as he said the last sentence.

"Did Eric go to jail?"

"Yeah. He got twenty years without parole. They had to delay the trial though until I woke up because every time they tried to ask Julie a question she went to pieces on them and I didn't."

"Did Eric ever go beyond hitting you?"

There was sudden silence and Walker could hear Gage swallow before saying, "Sometimes. He had this cabin about two miles beyond the house where he would take me because he didn't want Julie to know. If she had found out she would've turned him in to the police without a second thought. He'd handcuff my right hand to the bed so I couldn't fight him. Not that I would because I was scared of what would happen to Julie.

"It's funny but I don't remember most of what he did to me. What I remember most is the fact that the ceiling had a water stain on it and that's all I remember when I think about it."

"Sometimes people block out traumatic events and only remember something trivial that had no bearing on the event," Walker said.

"I guess."

Walker had to admit that he was surprised about Gage being sexually abused. It was one thing for Gage's sister to be abused like that but another thing entirely for Gage. It also explained why Gage had been nervous around him and Trivette when they had first met him and why Julie had been as jumpy as a cat.

"What happened after that?" Walker asked.

"The next home wasn't bad. I liked it. My foster father was a Texas Ranger and he did not put up with me being a pain. If I didn't do my homework I got grounded. He was nice and one of the few people I've ever trusted."

"What was his name?"

"Wade Harper."

"Wade Harper was your foster father?" Walker was surprised at that. Wade and Betsy Harper, two good friends, had been murdered three months earlier and Gage hadn't said a word about them half-raising him.

"Sure was. I lived with him and Betsy for two years before I graduated from high school."

"Did you stay in touch with them?"

"Yeah. I did. They were proud of me when I decided to join the Rangers. Wade was so happy. He kept saying that it was all due to him and Betsy finally hit him with her rolling pin and told him to be quiet," Gage laughed.

"That sounds like Betsy all right," Walker agreed with a smile.

"She was a character," Gage agreed then he fell silent.

"Gage? Gage?" upon getting no response Walker assumed Gage had fallen asleep and tried to follow suit but Gage's words kept reverberating through his head.

Ranger Headquarters

"Since nobody can get a hold of Gage we're just going to assume that he and Walker were both kidnapped," Trivette said. Several attempts had failed to raise stage, on his cell phone, home phone, and car phone.

The door opened and a DPS officer who had been sent to Gage's apartment entered.

"Ranger Trivette," he said. "We didn't find Ranger Gage but his apartment door was wide open and there was blood on the carpet."

Sydney gasped.

"Thank you, Officer," Trivette said. The officer nodded and left and Trivette turned to Sydney. "Sydney, that doesn't mean anything. If he was kidnapped then Walker will make sure he doesn't get hurt."

Basement

"Gage," Walker called. "Gage?"

No answer. Walker tried again and again but still no response. He was really worried by now.

"Gage," he said sharply.

"What? I'm trying to sleep," Gage moaned. "Or rather I was trying to sleep."

"Sorry," Walker apologized. "I just got worried when you didn't answer me. I think its morning."

"You think? Look, we can't do anything, we're handcuffed to poles or something, and all we can do is sleep."

"And talk," Walker said which emitted a groan from Gage.

"I think I've talked too much already," the young Ranger said.

"I'm sorry if I inadvertantly brought up some bad memories yesterday," Walker said.

Gage sighed, "It's not just you. It's…everything. The handcuffs, the fact that its pitch black and your questions didn't really help anything but I'm not mad. I'm mostly in shock that I told you that much. I mean, not even Syd knows that much about me!"

"She doesn't?" Walker was rather shocked.

"She knows the basic gist just not details."

"In other words she doesn't know that you were sexually abused," Walker interpreted.

"Something like that yeah."

Walker wasn't all that surprised. There was some things that you just didn't share with your female partner.

"So what did you do after foster care?" he asked.

"College," Gage replied promptly. "I managed to do four years in two then I joined the Port Arthur police department. I worked there for eight years before joining the Rangers and working in the Houston office."

Walker did some mental calculations in his head. Two years of college meant Gage had been 20 when he had joined the PAPD, 8 years there and he would have been 28 on joining the Rangers. Walker knew Gage had to have been good to join the Rangers at so young an age.

"Was Sydney your first partner?"

"No. My first partner was named Jerry. We worked together for about a year before he decided to sell us to a bunch of drug dealers and got killed. My captain put me with Syd because he thought we would kill each other. Boy was he surprised when we became good friends."

Ranger Headquarters

"All right," Trivette said. "I've checked the records of everybody Walker and Gage have taken down by themselves and I've gotten zero."

"How many did they take down together?" Alex asked.

"Zero," Trivette answered.

"Oh," Alex frowned.

"The four of us usually work on cases together," Sydney explained.

"What about criminals they didn't take down together but were the main people who testified against them?" Alex suggested.

"I'll check it out," Trivette promised. "Meanwhile, I've got two people who said they saw a red van pull out of here at break-neck speed yesterday right about the time that Walker was kidnapped. Gage's landlord says that he saw a van matching the same description at his apartment building."

"I'll get an APB out on the van," Sydney said, turning to her desk.

Two hours later Trivette said, "I got it."

Immediately Alex and Sydney came to him.

"Walker testified against a Brock Millson and Gage was the arresting officer."

"I remember hearing about that on the news," Sydney said. "Gage didn't attend the trial because he came down with the flu and had to stay home."

"Brock escaped from prison a week ago and his brother owns a red van," the three looked at each other as the impact of Trivette's words settled in.

"I'll talk to the judge," Alex rushed out of the room while Sydney sat down at her desk.

"Sydney, we'll find him."

"I know you will," Sydney sighed.

"I got a warrant to arrest Brock's brother," Alex announced one hour later, waving a piece of paper over her head.

"He owns a warehouse about three miles from here," Sydney said.

"Brock could be holding them there," Trivette said thoughtfully. "Let's go," he grabbed his hat then he and Sydney left.

Basement

Gage was failing to respond to anything and Walker was extremely worried. He was sure by now that the younger man had a concussion and was unconscious.

He stiffened as he heard several loud noises that sounded suspiciously like screams and gunshots.

Outside

Trivette and Sydney had managed to take the six Mexicans guarding the place by surprise. They arrested them and then entered the building.

"There's Brock!" Sydney cried and took after the man who was running toward the back door.

Trivette turned his attention to Brock's brother who decided to fight the black Ranger instead of running.

Soon Sydney and Trivette had subdued both men and had handcuffed them.

"Where are Walker and Gage?" Trivette demanded.

"In the basement," Brock's brother, Danny, said with a sigh.

Sydney and Trivette took off at a run toward a door that looked like it led to the basement.

"Walker, Gage?" Trivette called, opening the door.

"Trivette?" Walker's voice emerged from the darkness.

"I'm here and so is Sydney, we're coming down," Trivette started down the stairs with Sydney right behind him.

"I'm fine," Walker said. "I think Gage has a concussion and I'm pretty sure he's unconscious right now."

Sydney shrieked and turned on her flashlight, shining it at the walls and stopping on Walker's face. Trivette rushed forward and let his partner out of the handcuffs.

"I think Gage is over there," Walker said pointing.

Sydney turned her flashlight in that direction, revealing a trail of blood. She swallowed hard and followed the trail to where her partner was handcuffed, his head hanging to one side.

She knelt next to him and breathed a sigh of relief when she found a pulse.

"I'll call an ambulance," Trivette said and headed back up the stairs.

Three Days Later

St. Mathew's Hospital

"Up to company?" Walker asked.

"Come on in, Walker," Gage said. He looked a lot better. He had had a concussion and was finally getting released from the hospital.

"Where's Sydney?"

"She's bringing the car around front so I won't have to walk through the entire parking lot," Gage zipped his duffle bag and picked it up.

"Just making sure she didn't desert you."

"No she didn't," Gage grinned then turned serious. "Listen, Walker, that stuff I told you, you won't tell anybody else right?"

"Right," Walker said. "That's your business nobody else's."

"I figured that you wouldn't tell but I had to make sure and thanks."

"You're welcome," Walker said. "Just don't scare me like that again."

Gage grinned and said, "Sure thing, boss." Then he turned and walked out of the hospital room whistling.

"Somehow that doesn't exactly reassure me," Walker said to the empty room, then shook his head and followed Gage.


End file.
